


AlienZ

by Deifire



Category: Z Nation (TV)
Genre: Aliens, Between Episodes, Gen, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:34:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22060396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deifire/pseuds/Deifire
Summary: Takes place on the road between episode 2.09 "RoZwell" and episode 2.10 "We Were Nowhere Near the Grand Canyon."I was intrigued by your prompt about the possibility of the aliens from RoZwell being actual aliens. This is the result.
Relationships: Addison Carver & Roberta Warren
Comments: 7
Kudos: 22
Collections: Fandom Trumps Hate 2019





	AlienZ

**Author's Note:**

  * For [geckoholic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/geckoholic/gifts).



> Takes place on the road between episode 2.09 "RoZwell" and episode 2.10 "We Were Nowhere Near the Grand Canyon."
> 
> I was intrigued by your prompt about the possibility of the aliens from RoZwell being actual aliens. This is the result.

"It _still_ proves nothing. I'm telling you, my uncle knew a guy who was there when the original craft crashed in forty-seven—"

"Weather balloon." Murphy interrupts.

10K scoffs. "If it was a weather balloon, then how do you explain the bodies they found at the crash site? Those weren't human."

"Kid's got a point," Doc says.

"He might have a point, if there had ever been any bodies," Murphy counters. "Let's face it. There are no aliens. No crashed spaceship. No grey bodies. What happened in 1947 was the same thing that happened back there just now. Sufficiently advanced technology, overactive imaginations, and people believing what they want to believe."

Out of the corner of her eye, Addy can see Vasquez nodding in agreement. 

She sighs. Sufficiently advanced technology is exactly what they should be talking about. Specifically, the advanced technology of whatever very real human organization Dan Scully was working for that was using it to spy on them. ZONA. Instead, they're almost an hour out of RoZwell-with-a-Z and have spent the last several miles continuing to debate the existence of extraterrestrial life.

Aliens. 

Seriously.

She turns to the woman beside her to gauge her reaction. Roberta Warren's got both hands on the wheel and both eyes on the road ahead, letting the sounds of conversation and the "Super Sweet Mix" 8-track they inherited with their vehicle wash over her. Her expression seems almost serene as she steers them around the mangled remains of a Ford Taurus.

Addy wonders what she's thinking. She trusts Warren's instincts when it comes to these things. As long as nobody's actively threatening to bite anyone else, it's probably best to let them argue this out. Get it out of their systems so they have their minds back on planet Earth again when it comes time to deal with zombies and Zeros and other actual threats.

Still, there's something about this conversation that makes Addy want to scream.

"Admit it, Murphy," 10K says as Addy tunes back in. "A part of you believed back there. A part of you wanted to. When you were looking up into that beam, don't tell me—"

"I think a part of _all_ of us wanted to believe," Warren says quietly, not taking her eyes from the road. 

Addy wonders if she's thinking of her Air Force pilot father and his stories of lights in the northern Nevada sky.

"I know I did," Vasquez replies in that same soft tone. "There was a second there where all I could think was, 'Finally, a ride out of this apocalypse.'"

Addy wonders, not for the first time, if there's something going on between Vasquez and Warren. Or maybe she's just tired enough to believe in things that don't exist. Aliens. Relationships between people she cares about and other people she doesn't know well enough to fully trust yet. Those sort of things.

She needs sleep.

"There are no such things as aliens," Murphy says for the twelfth time.

"10k's right, though," Doc counters. "We don't exactly have proof of the whole alien thing one way or another." He shrugs as Addy turns toward him. "I wanted to believe, too."  
Addy says nothing.

"Even if there were aliens, let's face it," Murphy continues as though no one else has spoken, "with our luck the only things waiting for us up there would be a selection of probes and recipes out of a cookbook called 'To Serve Man.'"

Doc turns to 10K. "Now _he's_ got a point."

"This is stupid," Addy says. She grips the handle of the Z whacker and curls up in her seat, letting her heavy eyelids drift shut as Doc attempts to explain Murphy's reference.

Warren drives.

***

Addy wakes again to the howl of the desert wind, which has picked up enough to rouse her from sleep but not enough to drown out the sound of 10K's voice.

"What if Dan Scully was right, though? I mean, I know he was lying, but what if part of it was true? I'm just saying, what if aliens _have_ been among us for thousands of years?" 

He's as animated as Addy's heard him since Cassandra and she wishes she could enjoy it. Instead she keeps her eyes shut and tries to ignore both her dry throat and the world's most irritating conversation.

"If there were aliens, they've all turned zombie now," Murphy says around an audible yawn. 

Addy wonders once again what the human race could possibly have done to deserve Alvin Murphy. Their blue, sarcastic, selfish, eternally pessimistic savior.

"Could an alien even get the ZN1 virus?" Vasquez asks. 

"That's a good point," Warren murmurs. "You're not talking about an earth mammal. You're talking about something extraterrestrial. Hypothetically."

"Beats me," Doc says.

_I can't believe you're still talking about this at all_ , Addy thinks. She doesn't say it aloud though. Maybe if she's very quiet she can will herself back to sleep.

"When we get to the CDC, we can always ask the folks there if they think it's possible," Warren says, gently reminding them all of the mission. 

"Maybe aliens _are_ immune," 10K continues, sounding like he thinks they're onto something here. "I mean, there were all those false Murphy sightings after Citizen Z made that announcement. Maybe some of those were actually—"

"Oh, come on!" Murphy practically shouts. "For the last time, there are no aliens!"

Addy can barely hold back a snort of laughter. For someone who doesn't want to be the savior of the human race, "The Murphy" gets awfully upset at any suggestion he might not be as special as he likes to think he is. 

"Okay, that's enough." From the sound of Warren's voice, Addy can tell that she, too, is at least a little amused. She feels a comforting hand on her shoulder that means Warren knows she's awake. She tries not to betray that fact to the rest of the team as she moves just slightly to press against the touch.

And Addy drifts off again.

***

It's still dark when she wakes for the second time with a feeling in her throat like she's swallowed half the desert in her sleep.

"I'm just saying if there were any aliens left down here, this is definitely the sort place they'd hang out," Doc is saying as she reaches for her water and gulps it down. 

Oh great. They're still on this.

Addy blinks the sleep out of her eyes. There are no lights on this section of the road. In the reflected glow of their headlights, she can tell Warren's still at wheel. Vasquez is lightly snoring and, yep, drooling in his sleep. Murphy's slouched down with a Roswell souvenir hat over his eyes and his long coat draped over him like a blanket. 

Doc and 10K are up and chatting.

"Yeah?" says 10K. There's a snarling off in the distance and before Addy can react, he picks up his rifle and fires. "Four thousand three hundred and forty-one." He fires again. "Forty-two."

"Yeah," Doc continues, unconcerned by the interruption. "All sorts of strange creatures in New Mexico. Buddy of mine used to live near Santa Fe. Never saw an alien, but did see a chupacabra once and one of those giant birds they've got here—"

"I saw one of those once," Murphy interrupts. Obviously not asleep. Dammit.

"You did?" Doc asks.

"Yeah, it was purple, went 'Meep, meep' and was being chased by a coyote strapped to a rocket. Then a giant rabbit came out of a hole in the ground, pulled out a map, and told me he thought he'd made a wrong turn at Albuquerque."

"Wait, what?" That's 10K.

"Ignore him, kid," Doc says. 

"Go back to sleep, Murphy," Warren says. "It's going to be a long way to California."

"Gladly," Murphy says.

Warren turns to Addy then. She takes one hand off the wheel, laces their fingers together, and gives a gentle squeeze. "Why don't you go back to sleep, too? I've got this."

Addy nods. She's exhausted in ways she can't explain.

"What's a chupacabra?" 10K asks from the back. "Is that an alien?"

"Nah," says Doc. Then, "Well, maybe. But not the probing kind or the cattle mutilating kind. More like the goat blood sucking kind."

"Wait, really?"

Addy groans and moves so that her arms are covering her ears.

Warren keeps driving.

***

Addy wakes once again to the faint pink light of desert dawn. She has no idea where they are, only that they're on a winding road somewhere and there are mountains to the side. She twists and looks behind her. The guys are all asleep: Murphy cuddled in his coat, Vasquez with his head resting on one fist, Doc with an arm around 10K, and 10K with one hand on his rifle.

"Sorry about that," Addy says around a yawn. "I was so tired."

"It's okay," Warren says. "No puppies or kittens for miles. Besides, I knew you were here if I needed you."

Addy grips her Z whacker. "I am," she confirms. "Always. It's just—"

She stops herself, because how can she possibly explain? Aliens. Bernadette. How she nearly let her own need to hope, to have faith in something that could save the human race besides Alvin goddamned Murphy, lead her to believe in the ridiculous. How this isn't even—here she closes her eyes and wills away visions of Mack's disappointed face and a rampaging zombie bear—the first time she's misplaced her trust in that way.

Why isn't it enough to have faith in the woman beside her? The one person in this whole apocalypse she almost trusts absolutely? The one who's gotten them this far? 

"I—" she begins.

Only she forgets exactly what she's going to say, because suddenly Warren's braking. Their leader's eyes are wide and her hands tight on the steering wheel as she whispers, "What in the hell is _that_?"

There's a wreck blocking part of the road in front of them. The remains of a small silver car collided head on with a pickup. There's a body on the ground in front of it, half buried beneath mangled metal, the other half ending in a cracked skull surrounded by a bloody spear on the pavement. Just one of your ordinary, everyday sights in the zombie apocalypse. Only bending over it…

Addy wants to say the short humanoid form is a zombie. 

It would explain the grey skin, the misshapen limbs bent at odd angles. It would maybe even explain the creature's lack of nose. And it's possible the too-large eyes the creature is turning toward them are just empty eye sockets made to look strange by the light.

Because any other explanation is ridiculous.

Still, all Addy sees is hope.

They need to wake 10K. They need to wake everybody.

And then the creature snarls at them with a mouth full of bloody teeth and limps away into the darkness.

Addy turns to Warren expecting reassurance, only to see her own emotions written all over the other woman's face. The wide eyes now lidded with disappointment. 

She becomes aware her own mouth is still hanging open, closes it, and swallows.

And then Addy laughs.

Because what else can she do?

What else in this whole stupid world makes any sense?

There's an echoing snort from the woman beside her. Then a chuckle, then a full throated peal of laughter. 

Then there's just the two of them, laughing uncontrollably, collapsed across the seat into each others arms. 

Inevitably, the noise wakes the rest of the team wakes up.

"What's wrong?" Doc and Vasquez ask in unison.

"What's so funny?" Murphy demands from beneath his ridiculous hat.

10K reaches for his rifle.

"Nothing," Addy says. Because what else can she say?

"Nothing at all," Warren confirms. "Just an accident."

She straightens back up in the driver's seat and slowly begins to steer them around the wreck.

"What me to drive for a while?" Addy asks.

"Let's get up ahead of this a few miles. Then we'll switch," Warren agrees.

And then she drives them forward into the dawn.


End file.
